M TA President Barbara Madeloni and Vice President Janet Anderson have crisscrossed the state throughout the fall and winter to
hear members’ ideas about how to provide the schools
that students, educators and communities deserve.

Between Sept. 11 and Jan. 29, Madeloni
moderated 31 forums from Pittsfield to Martha’s
Vineyard. She and Anderson said there has been a
remarkable consistency in the messages they have
heard as members talked about their vision for
public education and about the obstacles they face in
achieving that vision.

“In meeting after meeting, we heard that memberswant schools that are safe, healthy environmentswhere students not only learn but develop a loveof learning,” Madeloni said. “They want the kindsof schools that policymakers and elected leadersprovide for their own children — schools with smallclass sizes, a rich curriculum and strong, positiverelationships among students and staff.”She continued, “When we asked members to putup on poster paper their vision of the public schoolsour children deserve, not once did they write, ‘highMCAS scores.’ Of course they want their studentsto do well academically, but the goal is to fosterthoughtful, creative human beings who are readyto engage in democracy — not good test-takers.Members are ready to organize to fight for schoolsTwo years ago, then-Massachusetts Secretaryof Education Matthew Malone acknowledged thateducators were faced with so many new mandatesthat trying to keep up had become like “trying todrink water from a fire hose.”Since then, members said at the forums, thenumber and pace of federal, state and districtmandates have only gotten worse.

“We hear from members that the constantchanges and new initiatives are disruptive andare taking time away from teaching,” Andersonsaid. “Unfortunately, the stress is driving somegood educators out of the profession or into earlyretirement. They want their union to help themadvocate for a new direction.”Some of the concerns raised are:n The high stakes associated with MCAS forstudents, educators, schools and districts are causingdistricts to impose more and more tests to getstudents ready for it.n Each new phase of the educator evaluationsystem adds components that have to be developedand implemented. Educators contend that they haveto spend so much time documenting what theydo, they have less time to actually teach and planlessons. One summed it up this way: “Now the ruleis that I have to constantly prove that I am a goodteacher.”n District-Determined Measures are the mostrecent requirement under the new system. DDMs arecreating more testing and paperwork — though manydoubt the validity and reliability of the measuresand others are concerned that they will lead to morestandardization of practice.n Kindergarten teachers in 171 districts now haveto implement the new Massachusetts KindergartenEntry Assessment, generally administered asTeaching Strategies GOLD. Many preschool teachersare required to administer TS GOLD as well. Manyteachers say this takes time away from teachingand interferes with how they relate to their studentswithout providing useful new information.n PARCC was layered on top of MCAS inmany classrooms during last year’s field tests, andmore than half of all districts are scrambling to getready to administer the full PARCC assessment thisyear. Concerns include how the tests will be scored,whether they will be aligned with what studentsare being taught, and whether students and districtsare prepared for the technological challenges of anonline exam as well as the impact of more testing inmore grades.n RETELL has proven to be extremelytime consuming, and scheduling courses hasbeen a disaster in some districts. Some teachershave questioned the quality of the professionaldevelopment provided; others wondered if it wouldbe better to return to bilingual education models.n Drastic changes are being imposed on schoolsdesignated Levels 4 and 5 with inadequate inputfrom educators and their unions. This has includedrequiring all staff members to reapply for their jobsand replacing veteran educators who had stellarevaluations with newer ones willing and able to worklonger hours for less pay. “Some call this classicunion busting,” said Madeloni.

n New charter schools are being opened,
disrupting district budgets and enrollments.

F orum participants were asked to analyze what forces they believe are behind the impediments to improving schools. Opinions varied widely.

Some blamed the companies that profit from
selling the new tests, curriculum materials and
professional development needed to implement
changes.

Some blamed state and federal education
officials and local administrators for being out of
touch with what goes on in classrooms and failing to
listen to what educators say they need.

Some blamed larger political and economic
forces that they believe benefit from having a
small number of elites who are well educated and a
larger group of compliant workers who are good at
following rules — good test-takers — but not prone
to questioning authority.

Some blamed families and students themselves
for not taking school more seriously and for not
backing up educators.

Regardless of their views of who was at fault,
many educators were eager to “reclaim public
education” by trying to bring about change.

While there was no consensus on how to do
that, there were many ideas shared and there was
widespread agreement that change has to come from
members themselves, starting at the grass roots.

A common theme was that educators need to
build stronger connections with parents and other
members of the community. Steps might include
holding community forums, building coalitions,
appearing more often in the media and meeting more
often with local and state policymakers.

The MTA’s elected leaders have begun
discussing what was learned at the forums. The
association’s legislative agenda, which grew out
of the forums, calls for a three-year moratorium
on high-stakes testing and new charter schools.
Statewide organizing around those bills is underway.

In mid-December, the MTA held an inter-divisional retreat to begin planning organizing
activities. Teams have formed to work on specific
issues that require grassroots activism and statewide
leadership.

“We have shown that we can be powerful when
members are informed and organized,” Madeloni
said. “Thanks to member engagement, we defeated
a bill to lift the cap on charter schools in July and a
plan to link educators’ licenses to their evaluations in
November. With more members getting involved, we
can change the terms of the debate and breathe new
life into the core values that brought us to teaching in
the first place.”

Nicole Byrne, who teaches English language
arts at High Rock School in Needham, shared
her thoughts during a forum in Dedham.